The Sculpted CypressSculpted deadwood

When this two hundred year old Monterey cypress finally died, St Anne's Park did not remove it. Instead, over three years starting in 2015, UK chainsaw artist Tommy Craggs carved its dead trunk into a vertical menagerie: an octopus wrapped around the base, birds and small mammals climbing toward a swan perched at the very top, all modelled on animals found in the park itself and on the sandbars of nearby Bull Island. The final three metres were finished in June 2018. It stands at the park's northeast corner, near where Watermill Road meets Clontarf Road, a part of the grounds most visitors miss on their way to the rose garden. The tree was already ornamental once, planted as one of the wind-breaking evergreens Lord Ardilaun favoured when he developed the St Anne's estate in the late 19th century. Dead wood usually gets cleared. This piece got a second life as public art instead, oiled and left to weather outdoors like anything else in the park. Entry to St Anne's Park is free, at any hour.